Media Bias

There is a lot of controversy surrounding the media in todays world: does the media report fairly, reporting vs creating the news, and whether or not the media should be monitored are all ways the media today are questioned. People rely on the media to deliver quick and accurate information to the public. When there are allegations of false or fabricated information being reported, from some of the only sources of information we have access too; it’s hard to tell whats the truth is. The media today doesn't report fairly. Most commonly discussed forms of bias occur when the media support or attack a particular political party, candidate, or ideology. They shouldn't try to force their views in anyone. The media in the United States systematically

Advertisers pay more for affluent audiences and media may tailor content to attract this audience, perhaps producing a right-wing bias. On the other hand, urban audiences are more profitable to newspapers because of lower delivery costs. Newspapers may for this reason tailor their content to attract the profitable predominantly liberal urban audiences. Finally, because of the increasing returns to scale in news production, small groups such as minorities are less profitable. This biases media content against the interest of minorities. Jimmy Chan of Shanghai University and Wing Suen of the University of Hong Kong develop a model where media bias arises because the media cannot tell "the whole truth" but are restricted to simple messages, such as political endorsements. In this setting, media bias arises because biased media are more informative; people with a certain political bias prefer media with a similar bias because they can more trust their advice on what actions to take. It’s also important to maintain some level of impartial reporting. The economics empirical literature on mass media bias mainly focuses on the United States. Steve Ansolabehere, Rebecca Lessem and Jim Snyder of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology analyze the political orientation of endorsements by U.S. newspapers. They find an upward trend in the average propensity to endorse a candidate, and in particular an incumbent one. If the government regulated things like this, it would help to “give the other side of the story”. There are also some changes in the average ideological slant of endorsements: while in the 40s and in the 50s there was a clear advantage to Republican candidates, this advantage continuously eroded in subsequent decades, to the extent that in the 90s the authors find a slight Democratic lead in the average endorsement choice. John Lott and Kevin Hassett of the American